Mitchell Dye
Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate
Electric Longboard: Mark 1
On this page, you'll find pictures and videos of the board in action, design considerations of this build, the successes of this project, as well as what I learned in the process and what I would change if I were to do this build again. Use the anchors on the left to navigate to each section.
Build Pictures
Design Considerations
There were a lot of things I needed to accomplish for the board to function well. I wanted the board to achieve the following:
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low center of gravity
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range of at least 5 miles
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speed of at least 15 mph
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compact electronics enclosure
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safe, convenient battery management system
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water resistance
And with the work and research I put into the build, I was able to accomplish almost everything I was hoping to accomplish. Below you will find a video of the first test run, interactive models of a few of the cad models I designed and used in this build, as well as a walkthrough of the process I went through in the process of creating this first iteration. Enjoy! And feel free to contact me with any questions by clicking here.
Results & Analysis
I learned a lot in the process of this build. While I was very happy with the final results, there were certainly some things I would have done differently had I done the build again. The first thing I plan to change is the look of the electronics enclosure. This case was functional, but due to the constraints of the board itself, I was not able to design it to be mounted above or below the deck. Because of this, it could only be mounted above the rear truck. This meant that the case was subjected to all of the intense vibrations from the truck, without any form of shock absorption. This meant that the solder joints, hardware mounts, and all the electronics components wore down at a much faster rate than they would have if they were mounted in the midsection of the deck. This, in addition to short battery life, inconvenient charging setup, lack of protection for the motor and mount, are issues I plan to address in the next iteration. To see the final results of the next iteration, click here!